Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

I wondered how they made it look so white in the recipe, with all that melted butter and an egg in it, but my pic looks quite white too. In reality, it is a bit yellowish. It's very soft and light, although I guess it's meant to be sweet, brioche-like, I'm not sorry I dialled the sugar down a bit. Very pleased, overall.

It looks great. I shall definitely give it a go. None of my (many) bread books mention it, AFAIR.

That looks amazing, @duc748 - I do like Japanese bread, light and fluffy and slightly sweet.

I reckon I did about 25 mins at 180 deg. The quantities seemed just right for a standard small loaf tin. I thought two eggs was a bit extravagant, though, you only need to a a couple of teaspoonful of beaten egg back for the glaze! 😀

It looks good, Duc. My daughter made three rolls, as she couldn't find the bread tin. You know, the first thing she took out of the cupboard and left on the unit.

@angelico53 thank you for your post about your birthday weekend. It made me well up a little. I'm sure you've done plenty to deserve all the love. I'm sure you've given as much as you receive because that's how love works. There is luck as well, you were in the right places at the right times and here you are, happy. Not just happy but able to appreciate it and that is the perfection of it. So many of us glide through life never stopping to appreciate the best of moments and you did and I'm sure you do very often. That is why you deserve all you have because you know what you have and you cherish it. I hope you have many more moments like this and share them with us.

Indeed, Angelico, I think your query as to what you'd done to deserve your lovely day answered itself, And you even shared it with us.

That Japanese bread looks fantastic - I'm going to try it soon.

Thank you both (and all before, in case I didn't!) very much. I'll never forget it. :)

Even today - which is the deadline for self-assessment! Arrrrghhhh!

Actually, mine is dead easy, because I only have one-and-a-bit clients at the moment, and I work from home. I always try to be proud that I pay my taxes, but it's getting harder as you see what the fools spend it on and what they don't.

Tax all done now, Angelico? I think the latest I've submitted was 11.50pm on deadline day. I always intend to get it done as soon as I have all the figures in July-ish, but it always ends up being the last week of January.

First sign of spring in our lawn. The squirrels didn't get all the bulbs this year.

I went to see Tar tonight. I almost decided not to see this because it's long and I'm so done with long films - bring back the intermission! - but a friend asked if I fancied going with her and I thought if all else fails I'll have a little nap in the cinema (I fell into that habit last year but I now know it was the films - Belfast and West Side Story - that were at fault and not my inability to stay awake in a cinema any longer. Last week was Empire of Light which was just lovely and tonight ...

It is long and I won't say it feels far less long than it is but it certainly doesn't feel as long as it is. I thought about how it could have been edited but then it would have been more melodramatic and that would have ruined it. It's just really, really, really good and Cate Blanchett is amazing. My friend asked me afterwards if Lydia Tar was a real person and I understood why. Cate Blanchett creates a character so bloody real that it's hard to believe she's a fictional construct. I will be amazed if she doesn't win the Oscar this year because she's insanely good. No spoilers but the end of the film was not even slightly what my friend and I were expecting.

Living near a cinema after so many years of not being near one and hardly going to see films on the big screen is such a joy. The three trailers are all on our list of films to see. (The Quiet Girl, Women Talking and the documentary All The Beauty and The Bloodshed). I've been in my new home for just over a month and the change in my life is HUGE and all for the better.

It’s nice seeing the early bulbs emerging, like little heralds of longer warmer days.

Tar sounds like an excellent film. The promo clips I’ve seen are very compelling. Unfortunately I really don’t have the attention span for long films anymore. Don’t know whether I can blame lockdown brain or iPhone brain or menopause.

Meanwhile, I seem to have developed a chest infection (mucho coughing and chesty phlegm, ugh). This is bad timing because we’re in the middle of a family roadtrip so we’re all in the same car, and I’m sharing a hotel room with my mum. So now I’m worried about infecting everyone.

But. To cheer everyone up, here is the beach where we are (it’s a crap beach but we didn’t pick this hotel for the beach).

Is there a new thread yet? Did I miss it?

Yep - tax all done and paid, @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn. I don't think I've ever been as close to the deadline as 11.50pm, though!

I'm looking forward to posting bulb and garden pics in the spring. We have a tiny garden but we try to fill it with colour.

I spotted my first crocus yesterday, and it is also one of those butter coloured ones - they must have enjoyed the conditions this winter. And now it's SPRING in the Celtic calendar, so happy St Brigid's day to all.

Poor Kuc stuck with a cold - I hope it clears up asap.

It really cheers me up seeing posts like your Grace, or Angelico's birthday post. I have downlaoded Tar but might ask Mrs Pike if she fancies going to see it in the cinema instead.

I haven't heard of Tar, what's it about?

We haven't got any bulbs budding yet, although the crocus leaves have fattened.

When you want to sell the house, but your teenager won't leave their room (pics 88 onwards): www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123350090?

What a mad place - it's like the house that Jack built. I assume it isn't a house at all but an apartment block.

Under key features I wonder what "tents" is a mistranslation of!

Surely the tent is the lovely colourful one in the teenager's bedroom 😀. That's an awful lot of property for the price!

@SinnerBoy it's about a female conductor who is world leading and has the arrogance and ego to equal any man in the business. She also has Me Too type issues. It's a joy to watch her huge character. Wonderful music as well, mostly Mahler's 5th and Elgar's cello concerto.

@Dotellhimpike I'd say it's definitely worth seeing in the cinema not least because of the sound. For the music obviously but there's use made of it with other stuff that's interesting too.

NotDrowningJustCrowing

Thank you for the explanation.

Lucky you, Crows, living near a cinema! In London I lived a 10-minute walk from the cinema and went at least once a week. My timid little cat would walk halfway there with us, then duck into a little railed park and wait for us to walk back home, when she’d pop out of the railings with a little “there you are!” chirrup.

That house is creepy. Maybe the teen is being kept captive.

Ha ha! Those pictures are mad, so many of them, when fewer would be better. What’s with the upside down cup on the bathroom floor?

I think 'tents' means retractable awnings for the balconies. I didn't spot the upside down cup.

Two different bathrooms seem to have a cup.